Bohemian Rhapsody Review

If you want your music biopic to be named after a song, you don't have to choose the most famous one. The title helps give a movie its identity. Yes, it can have a sort of identity with words everyone can recognize and associate to the singer/band, but it's more meaningful when the words help explain who the singer/band is/are. BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY isn't a good choice. I know it couldn't be WE WILL ROCK YOU because that's already the title of a stage musical which tells a fictional story with Queen's songs (it'll probably never be adapted into film since the existance of this movie (which has almost the same song repertoire) might make it feel redundant), but what about WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS, DON'T STOP ME NOW or to a lesser extent I WANT TO BREAK FREE? There's even a song with the band's name in the title! Making a music biopic gives the director the opportunity to make a series of music-video-like scenes with resources that weren't available when the real singer/band was making actual music videos. Not a lot of this movie's musical sequences show visual creativity and, among those that do, very few are personalized to the specific song. By that I mean that any song could've been played during the sequence. Another thing about music biopics is that they tend to show the same situations. How many times have we seen band members arguing because one has become a diva and/or isn't sober during work? It bothers me more here, because: A) script writers Anthony McCarten and Peter Morgan make up a break-up and a reunion just to have more of this same drama; B) there were opportunities to focus on aspects that made Queen distinct, but some things are only shown briefly (like using different objects during an album recording) and others aren't shown at all (life how, in real life, Freddie Mercury designed a logo for the band, despite it not being vital for the music itself); C) there's a scene where the band members are told that their music should stick to the proven formula and they're against it. Speaking of hypocrisies, while Rami Malek's vocals are mixed with old recordings, what we mainly hear is the real Freddie singing, and yet, there's a scene of the band members being against lip-syncing. At the beginning, FREDDIE sings in front of BRIAN MAY and ROGER TAYLOR so he can join the band. He (awesomely) leaves knowing that they're impressed... even though he didn't say his name or give them any contact information. Despite all my complaints, the humour is witty and the plot managed to be compelling from beginning to end. Rami does a complete transformation. Not just with the way he conveys emotions but also the physicality. It felt like his head was placed into the real Freddie's body. Ben Hardy's performance is less showy but also great, and Lucy Boynton and Gwilym Lee's are very good.

7/10
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